Dushanbe, 5 November 2008. Last Wednesday OJSC INTER RAO UES brought on line the third hydroelectric power unit at Sangtudinskaya GES-1 located on the Vakhsh river, Tajikistan. The power unit was put into operation ahead of schedule. The solemn ceremony of commissioning was attended by the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon.

The President of Tajikistan said that commissioning of the plant’s third hydropower unit would help meet a severe shortage of electric power in the republic. E. Rahmon thanked Russia for “helping Tajikistan in its hour of need, with the republic facing acute shortages of electric power”.

The design capacity of the unit brought on stream is 167.5 MW; its monthly output of electric power is about 72 mln kWh. Once the fourth unit is on stream, the total capacity of the power plant will be 670 MW, with annual power output of 2.7 bln kWh.

The first hydropower unit of the power plant was commissioned on January 20, 2008. The unit was brought into operation three months ahead of schedule, which enabled not only to decrease seasonal deficit of electric power in the Republic of Tajikistan but also to accelerate the plant bringing to full capacity. The second unit was put into operation on July 1, also ahead of schedule.

It is expected that the whole scope of works related to the construction of Sangtudinskaya GES-1, done by OJSC INTER RAO UES, will be completed in the 1st quarter of 2009. Total cost of plant construction makes about 17.2 billion rubles.      

The project to construct the plant was launched in the late 1980s. By the early 90s, twenty percent of the construction work had been completed. However, the project was suspended due to the lack of funds and the breakout of hostilities in Tajikistan.

Negotiations between Russia and Tajikistan on the completion of Sangtudinskaya GES-1 started in 2003, and in October-November 2004 there were signed several key documents on the order and conditions of execution of works to complete the power plant construction.

Sangtudinskaya GES-1 is one of the largest investment projects on the CIS area financed by the Russian Government and Russian companies. A number of Russian companies, such as Power Machines, Chekhovsky Zavod Gidrostal, ChirkeiGESstroy, Zarubezhvodstroy, Zagranenergostroymontazh, Hydromontazh Trust, and others, act as contractors and equipment suppliers for the project. Over 4,500 people are currently engaged on the Sangtudinskaya GES-1 site, of which 3,600 people are citizens of Tajikistan.